School Days: Think Big by Liz Garton Scanlon

BIG VOICE. ON PITCH.
PIN. TRIM. THREAD, STITCH.

A group of preschoolers with amazing skills and imagination throw themselves into the task of putting on a show.

There are instruments--a tall bass viol:

BOW, STROKE

and, of course, dance and dancers:

SPIN, TWIRL.
TOE, HEEL

.
The young performers throw themselves into rehearsal, inspired by a lively classroom cat, while the stage crew paints posters and sets, cooks up sustenance for the troop, knits costumes, and even throws clay pots for the set. It's a whirlwind of colorful activity, with the purpose revealed on the final pages, a drama for their enthusiastic parents entitled WHEN WE GROW UP.

Liz Garton Scanlon, author of the Caldecott-winning All the World has another spare-texted but lyrical story that is both fantastical and yet true to the exuberance of early childhood in her just published Think Big (Bloomsbury, 2012). The young, brave-of-heart thespians, who do experience a bit of stage fright just before the show goes on, are bursing with energy in Vanessa Newton's spritely illustrations where everyone is always in motion. Fun for reading aloud or kicking off a class performance when youngsters must take a deep breath and learn to think big.

Gotta Sing! Penny and Her Song by Kevin Henkes

Penny came home from school with a song.

"Listen, Mama," said Penny. "It's my very own song!"

Penny has been learning how to count and has come up with her own counting song, in rhyme no less. She even remembers all the words.

But Mama stops her in mid-line.

"Your song is beautiful.

But you will wake up the babies."

Penny tries out her act with Papa, but gets the same response. Those twins really need to finish their naps!

Lily tries to be patient. She goes to her room, closes the door tight, and sings her song quietly, very quietly to herself. She rehearses, watching herself sing it in the mirror. She performs it before a circle of her glass animals.

It's not a thrill. What her song needs is an real audience.

Finally the babies are up, their meal is made, and the family assembles for dinner. Penny launches into her song as soon as Mama and Papa are seated.

"Not at the table!" says Mama.

"After dinner!"

Penny is worried. What if she forgets some of the ten things she's counting up? What if she forgets most of the words?

But at last it's time for Penny's song, and Mama and Papa are bowled over. Patience and practice had paid off and Penny's performance is "beautiful," her parents proclaim. Even the babies clap and clap. Mama and Papa don some costumes--Mama in funny sunglasses and Papa in his silliest hat--inspiring Penny to put on a feather boa for a festive reprise, and everyone really belts out her song together. Even the babies giggle and bounce in time.

"I'm tired," smile Mama and Papa at last. The babies don't say anything. They have already fallen asleep.

Kevin Henkes is known as a master creator of memorable girl mouse characters--tales of Wemberley, Chrysanthemum, Sheila Rae (the Brave), and of course Lily of the notorious purple plastic purse. Compared to the exploits of such self-confident and exuberant young mouse girls as Sheila and Lily, Penny is a sedate, rather laid-back character, her story one of simple forbearance and good-natured family feeling, but Henkes' new Penny and Her Song (Greenwillow, 2012) presents a likely and likable heroine for the award-winning author's debut into short chapter books for early readers.

Where Skies Are Blue: Over the Rainbow performed by Judy Collins

WHEN ALL THE WORLD IS A HOPELESS JUMBLE,

AND THE RAINDROPS TUMBLE ...ALL AROUND,

HEAVEN OPENS A MAGIC LANE...

WHEN ALL THE CLOUDS DARKEN UP THE SKYWAY,

THERE'S A RAINBOW HIGHWAY ... TO BE FOUND.

So begins the little-known introduction to Harold Arlen's timeless musical classic, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." Noted illustrator Eric Puybaret takes his inspiration from this opening to build his design for Over the Rainbow (Book & Audio CD), performed on the accompanying CD by Judy Collins.

THERE'S A LAND THAT I HEARD OF

ONCE IN A LULLABY.

Puybaret takes his young heroine on a whimsical and fantastical trip from the solitary farmhouse where she sleeps and into that land, a fanciful flight through the sky toward that mythical place beyond the rainbow, peopled by surreal but benevolent personified heavenly bodies and beneficent raindrops, all borne upon the familiar words of the song. Great music for any time, and an especially wonderful bedtime song for sweet dreams.

To the youngest reader-listeners, who may not be familiar even with Judy Garland's iconic performance in the movie The Wizard of Oz, Collins' performance will bring this song alive for another generation. Also included on the CD are Collin's versions of "I See the Moon" and "White Coral Bells."

"A Discord Is Not a Missed Chord": Splat the Cat Sings Flat by Rob Scotton

ONE MORNING SPLAT'S TEACHER HAD BIG NEWS.

"ALL OF YOU WILL SING ON PARENT'S NIGHT," MRS. WIMPYDIMPLE SAID.

"IF YOU SING LOUD YOUR PARENTS WILL BE PROUD!"

Splat is suddenly overwhelmed with stage fright. Sing out loud? Right in front of everyone's parents? Splat is frozen with shyness. As Mrs. W. leads everyone through a solo "la-la-la" to warm up, not a sound comes out of his throat.

But his best friend, Seymour the mouse, who rides inside Splat's hat to school with him every day, bucks him up, pointing out that if a mouse can be brave enougb to come to school with a class of cats, Splat can surely learn to la-la along with them.

So Splat screws up his courage, and after a squeaky try, finally manages to vocalize:

"LA!" SANG SPLAT.

THE NOTE WAS LOUD. THE NOTE WAS LONG.

AND IT WAS VERY, VERY FLAT.

The other little singers are cracked up by Splat's off-key solo, but Mrs. Wimpledimple is a teacher who knows how to work with each student's. er, special talents. And she figures out a way to put even Splat's out-of-tune offering to good use, and on the night of the big performance, a star is born!

"LA-A-A-A!" SANG SPLAT.

ALL THE PARENTS LAUGHED, AND SPLAT LAUGHED LOUDEST OF ALL!

"YOU WERE THE STAR!" SAID HIS MOM AFTERWARD.

Rob Scotton's latest entry into the venerable Harper I Can Read series, Splat the Cat: Splat the Cat Sings Flat (I Can Read Book 1) (Harper, 2011) humorously takes the emergent reader through yet another milestone of first grade, the public performance, in his usual sure-footed style. Splat's nervous tail twitches tell all, as Scotton's comic illustrations register Splat's tensions to a T. This inexpensive and funny little book is sure to become another first-grade early reader staple.

Turn It Down! I Can Still Hear It! Shake, Rattle, & Turn That Noise Down! by Mark Alan Stamaty

The day I turned eight in 1955, my parents gave me a really cool birthday present.

It might not seem so great today because the world has changed so much. TV was black and white. In our house, besides our TV, we had one big radio in the living room that was shared by all three of us.

So getting my own radio for my on room was a very big deal!

But the more things change, the more they stay the same! As they smile happily, watching little Mark sweetly singing along with Patti Page to the three-four rhythm of "The Tennessee Waltz," his parents don't know know that they will soon be dancing to different Tennessee beat.

"... that innocent-looking plastic box would one day be the gateway for a NEW kind of sound..."

The day that little Mark turns on his radio and hears Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog" blasting Memphis rhythm & blues, his fate is sealed. Before his aghast parents know what is happening, he's sporting a pompadour and practicing his rubber-leg routine with a tennis-racket guitar in front of his mirror. There's a temporary truce when Mom hears the soft sounds of "Love Me Tender" and grants him the privilege of purchasing that ONE Elvis 45. Of course, she doesn't reckon with what's on the B side.

And it's all over for peace in the house! As his parents pray the Elvis fad will blow over before little Mark turns into a juvenile delinquent, Mark goes on to discover Little Richard and worse, and before Mom knows what's happening, he and his duck-tailed, lip-sync band are starring in the Cub Scout Talent show with you-know-who beginning his career as an Elvis impersonator and bringing the house down.

I was Rockin' That Joint! The house went wild! "You must be proud of your boy," someone said.

And she was.

A veteran of the volume battles in my own youth ("Turn it down! I can still hear it!" is a direct quote from my own parental units), I found Mark Stamaty's full-color comic-style version of the generational music gap wars a real trip back in time. Whatever the music of the time was or is, from hot jazz to boogie woogie to rock & roll to rap, kids are going to play their music and parents are going to cover their ears. Cartoonist Mark Alan Stamaty' new Shake, Rattle & Turn That Noise Down!: How Elvis Shook Up Music, Me & Mom (Knopf, 2010) is a light-hearted look at how it was and will ever be. Current kids have encountered the iconic Elvis and his music somewhere along the way and will enjoy Stamaty's frenetic illustrations and instinctively groove to the universal urge to be way cool.

In addition to having done his killer Cub Scout Elvis at the White House (see the book's appendix), Stamaty is also the author of Who Needs Donuts? and his graphic novel Alia's Mission: Saving the Books of Iraq.

Woke Up This Mornin' : One Shoe Blues by Sandra Boynton, Starring B.B. King

WOKE UP THIS MORNIN',
COULDN'T FIND MY SHOE.

Yeah, we've all been there. Those up in the mornin', can't get my poor self together blues.

And who better to sing them for us than B.B. King, the quintessential bluesman himself.

If B.B. and Lucille can't tell it like it is, who can?

That's what Sandra Boynton, Li'l Queenie of the board books, must have figured when she turned to old-fashioned film to make her newest multimedia production, One Shoe Blues.

Drawing on the soulful hit song from her book and CD combo from 2007, Blue Moo: 17 Jukebox Hits From Way Back Never,(see my post here) Boynton fashioned a spin-off, a story board book and DVD, filming the illustrious bluesman himself performing the hit song, "One Shoe Blues" from the CD which accompanied the earlier book.

Film making requires more than just cutting the record--it requires sets, costumes, lighting, sound technicians, gaffers, and even the stereotypical corps of back-up singers, in the form of Momsock, "renowned actress and jazz legend," and the bluesy " Overeager Singing Sock Puppets."

The result is a sweet and swingin' fifteen-minute film in which all concerned help B.B. locate his missing green sneaker. Kids, of course, will spot it right away, but the fun of the search will keep them laughing through this stylish film in which the famous blues brother turns in a decidedly nuanced performance. B.B. admits that he had never in his long life in show biz performed with a sock puppet, but he carries it off with the good humor and grace he's always shown in the spotlight.

For her part, Boynton deadpans with her best faux film school seriosity,

"As the film director I feel that I have the responsibility to comment on the significance of the work.

My vision was... loss... and redemption... and sock puppets."

Uh huh. B.B. was no problem, "a fine actor," the director reports, but the sock puppets were "kinda high maintenance." (Watch the book/DVD trailer here.)

It's Boynton at her best, creating a product that is both childlike and sophisticated, and above all appealing to the preschool set. Where else can you share the universal experience of looking for your missing shoe, introduce blues to tots, and, um, sneak in the fun of Sesame-Street style characters to boot? There is even sheet music--words, notation, and guitar chords appended--for those in the mood to be singin' the blues themselves.

It's hot, it's blue, and it's just for you--One Shoe Blues, (Workman, 2009), kid-vid that parents can love, too.

Texas Tale: Tex and Sugar: A Big City Kitty Ditty by Barbara Johansen Newman

In a swingin' Texas spoof of the old movie theme, two talented youngsters, Tex Mex Rex and Sugar Lee Snughead, leave the ranch behind to take on the trials of the big city:

"I've tuned my guitar. I know I'll be a big star," Tex tells his parents.

"Here I come, Broadway! Farewell, El Paso!" the sweet-singin' Sugar tells her momma.

But the big city has its trials for the the Texas twosome. Alone, they struggle to survive in the Big Apple.

Tex begged all the networks to give him a spot.
But a gig washin' dishes was all that he got.

She sang and danced and flashed her big smile.
But Sugar's big part in a show was the aisle.

After sloggin' through weeks of washin' dishes and usherin' patrons to their seats at the local movie house, Tex and Sugar are ready to pack up their guitar picks and head back to Texas--until one night after work they both do a bit of solo singin':

The warm summer breeze blew their songs throughout the sky.
Such sweet soulful longing caused neighbors to cry.

The tunes were forlorn and feelin's so true
That rats and roaches and pigeons cried, too.

"Dear Dogies!" purred Sugar. "I hear my soul mate."
"Hot Froggies!" yowled Tex, " This has to be fate."

The Texas tunesmiths finally meet and form a twosome, and it's a duet made in heaven. Tex and Sugar together take the town by storm, and it's no time before they make the marquees on old Broadway:

The music was magic for Sugar and Tex.
It's hard to figure out what happened next....
Each cat searched for stardom and found a best friend.
They're still making music and will to... THE END!

Carefully crafted illustrations with many Texas-style motifs add plenty of visual emphasis to Barbara Johansen Newman's Tex & Sugar: A Big City Kitty Ditty that will have the listeners singin' "Deep in the Heart of Texas."